More than $15 billion was spent by French state railway company SNCF on purchasing a new fleet of trains. The trains were found to be too wide for the more than 1, 3000 stations across France. It would cost more than $750 million to fix.

Cheaper than expected

In 2005, a Japanese trader accidentally lost $330 million when he sold 610, 000 shares for 1 yen or $0.12, instead of 1 share for 610, 000 yen. The Tokyo Stock Exchange refused to cancel the trade as requested by Mizuho Securities, which was forced to buy back the shares at a much higher cost.

Throwing away millions of Bitcoin

In 2009, when the value of Bitcoin was next to nothing, James Howell bought 7, 5000 Bitcoins. By 2013, one Bitcoin was worth more than $1000. James’ Bitcoin portfolio was more than $7.5 million and he lost it all when he threw out the old hard drive where his Bitcoin was stored without realising his mistake until later.

The multi-million dollar grammar error

In 2009, Taylor and Son filed for bankruptcy, however the British government was sued for more than $15 million by Taylor and Sons, after Companies House made a clerical error to their records, adding an ‘s’ to Taylor and Son. The 124-year-old Welsh family business Taylor and Sons was mistaken to be in liquidation.